Adventures in Rome and Florence!

Hi everybody,

In a couple of hours I’ll be flying back to Sydney, so I thought I’d put in another blog update about my adventures in Italy.  The first few nights I was in Rome, I stayed in the lovely Trastavere neighborhood, which has the oldest church in the world dedicated to Mary.

Here is a picture of my first meal in Italy, which was at a nice little restaurant nearby:

My first day in Italy I didn’t have much energy to do more than explore Trastavere a bit and then go to sleep.  But the next day early in the morning I went on an epic trip to the Vatican City.  On my way, I was delighted to see a store selling the latest in ecclesiastical fashions:

Here's St. Peter's Square:

The first thing I checked out in the Vatican was St. Peter’s Basilica.  It is very difficult for a photograph to convey how amazing and beautiful it is.  I tried, but all the photos I took with that intention came out looking lame.  So instead, here is a picture of me with some of the Basilica in the background.  (Note the halo.)

The next thing on the itinerary was the Vatican Museum, which is HUGE, and has the Sistine Chapel inside it.  But we weren’t allowed to take pictures there.  Nevertheless, I did get a few pictures of some lesser but still amazing masterpieces.  I took the liberty, for example, of inserting myself into the School of Athens:

and posing in front of the Laocoön:

At one point I glanced out a window from the Vatican Museum and was charmed to see a tennis court and a little playground for children in the Vatican’s grounds.  I didn’t know the Pope went in for tennis:

And speaking of the Pope, attached to the Vatican Museum there was a little-known exhibit of Popemobiles through the ages.  I took a picture of one of the swankier old Popemobiles:

A few more things I saw in the Vatican before I left were this charming picture of the previous Pope holding a Koala, and a painting of the Magi coming to visit Jesus, which I photographed because Jasper’s name derives from Gaspar, the name (according to tradition) of the Magus who brought Jesus frankincense.

I did a bit more walking around Rome that day, including a visit to the ancient temple of Ariadne, which I expected to have that library-esque vibe that more or less like every other Very Old Thing has, but which instead seemed to have a panel discussion going on inside, with lots of Italian politicians and the media and enthusiastically clapping constituents.

Before I left Rome I also checked out the Colosseum, which was astounding, and the Palatine, which is the (now uninhabited) neighborhood nearby where all the old Roman aristocrats used to live:

Then a few days of philosophical conferring, and on to Florence!  Which I have to say I liked much better than Rome.  My first meal in Florence was a German sausage and some German beer, which was being served out in front of the Cathedral of Santa Croce because of some German market/street fair.

Florence is a very beautiful city.  The skyline is dominated by the Duomo, the central cathedral, which is humungous. 

Florence also boasts the Ponte Vecchio, which is a famous bridge that connects the two parts of the city.  Mostly it has lots of jewelry shops on it.  You can see it in the distance here.

And that’s about all, folks!  I saw a lot more in Florence (e.g. Michelangelo’s David, Boticelli’s Birth of Venus, etc.) but photos were forbidden, so I don’t have as much from Florence to post.

So that’s the report on my trip to Italy.  I’ll be getting home late Thursday night, and am soooooo much looking forward to being with Rachael and Jasper again.

Lots of love from the Eternal City,

Throckmorton.